NOT NEWBIE: PrePurchase way to check stop-leak?
 

so, anyone who watches this board knows about my rebuild and all the crap that went with it... well, the other day i had a realisation.

I THINK the guy that sold me my FD actually had a coolant seal problem, put a block-weld/stop-leak in from reading advice from forums like this, and sold it before it gave out.

hence, i bought it - suddenly had high temps one night and soon a rebuild on my hands.

so the question - is there any way to test for the presence of a stop-leak in the FD's system before purchasing? if so, i think many newbies should have this as part of thier checklist cause i got BURNT!

Tell tale signs are a copper residue in the filler necks of the AST or thermostat housing. I'm finding about 2/3'rds of the TB's I'm getting polished show signs of this treatment, as well as the thermostat housings and some of the waterpump housings. None of them are showing any signs of blockage, just the copper colorazation.

i wish i knew that back then huh!?

It would have been something to discuss with the person. I forgot to mention that while it shows the usage of some form of treatment in the cooling system it wouldn't necessarily mean the motor is bad, since I reused 90% of my accessories on a short block it only means that it had been in my system at sometime or another. The problem could have been fixed and unless you clean all the residue out of the parts it will still show in allot of the places i mentioned, you should even be able to see it in the recovery tank as well.

anyone have a picture of this stuff? should be archived :)